Want to make the easiest DIY all-natural body scrub soap at home? All you have to do is cut up a bar or two of 100 percent natural glycerin soap and melt it in a microwave-safe bowl or cup for about a minute. Stir in a few tablespoons of natural exfoliates like coffee grinds or beach sand. Pour the mixture into a mold (a clean juice or milk container works well) and allow it to set. Voila! You've made your own body scrub!

Have a hard time keeping houseplants alive? Going away on vacation and wanting your plants to thrive while you're away? Here's a simple way to give them a fighting chance and recycle newspaper at the same time: Give your thirsty houseplant a good drink of water, then place a layer of newspaper on top of the soil. Keep watering until the newspaper is completely saturated. This does two things: It help seal in the moisture in the soil so the roots stay moist, and over time, the newspaper will break down into a beneficial mulch for the houseplant. If you have arid-loving plants like succulents and cacti, all you have to do is remove buds and flowers and place them in a sunny spot. Removing the flowers means the plant needs less water to stay alive. In fact, they can go months without watering if you pinch the buds off.

If you have a backyard compost pile, it's obvious to many people that items like bones, meat and used cooking oil should never be tossed in, because they attract pests and can ruin a compost's moisture balance. But there are other never-add items that you may not know about: Sawdust, for example, comes from trees and seems compostable, but unless you know how the lumber was treated, you should not add it, since there may be chemical residue. Dead houseplants should also be avoided, because you could be adding disease to the compost. And finally, walnuts: They have a natural chemical called juglone that is toxic to plants. So adding walnuts to compost used in a garden could act like a herbicide over time.